The Garments We Choose

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Thank you. Yeah. Good job, guys.

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And now Pastor Jonathan has a week to learn that for you all for

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next week. Just

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kidding. Is that not the most fabulous.

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How can you not have joy with that? How can

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you. That is what a garment of praise looks like.

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That's what a garment of praise looks like. It just. You know, every parent in

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here is grinning. You know, grandparents are grinning. Everybody's like, that is

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just so cool. If they would just be like that at home. No, I did

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not say that. I'm excited about what

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the Lord has. This is important. Muy

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importante. Because this

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is one of the things the Lord's been dealing with me about this week is

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choosing the garment of praise instead of a

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spirit of heaviness. Does anybody understand that?

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Anybody understand how sometimes we

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have to make a choice and we have to choose to put

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on the garment of praise? It doesn't just, like, automatically

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happen. You. You know, I know that's what happened in the Jetsons. But we're not

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there, and the kids are going, who are the Jetsons? Anyway?

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There are things that we have to choose in our life and

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in our spiritual walk. We make so many choices.

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And my prayer would be, I'm just gonna do with you what I did

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last week. I'm gonna walk you through where the Lord took me this

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week and worked me through some of my problems and

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my issues. And. And I

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trust he will do the same with you. Because what I believe, he's calling us

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all to do that. He wants to give us beauty for ashes,

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the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for

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the spirit of heaviness.

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Worship is a garment we must intentionally put on.

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We have to intentionally put on. I was so tickled today

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when I walked in and other people were wearing the Worship Anyway T

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shirt. Amazon link. Guys,

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let's see how many we can get in here next week. You want to. And

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here's the other thing. If you should take it in your heart to

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get one for yourself, get one for one of the teens, one

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of the kids. Cause you know, they ain't got no money. And

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let's get them to worship anyway. Cause they're working through this, too.

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So, Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your truth. I

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thank you for the hope that we find in you

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continually. Continually. I'm so

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grateful that we serve a God who does not change. So, Father,

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I ask that you just hover over this place.

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May your holy Spirit just penetrate our hearts.

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Teach us, Lord. We've come to learn from you not from me,

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Lord, I ask that my stuff fall in your stand. In Jesus

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name. In Jesus name.

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We'll start where we should always start, with Scripture.

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Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved,

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clothe yourselves with. Now, I'm gonna pause right there. There's this

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show used to be on. I guess it's still on, but it's called what not

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to Wear. I'm getting ready to share with you what you

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should wear and what you shouldn't wear. It has nothing to do with

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your clothing, but it has everything to do with the decision that we make every

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single, single day in how we walk on the

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planet and how we choose to carry out our lives in such

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a way that it glorifies our Father. So therefore,

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as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved,

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clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,

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gentleness, and patience. Now, he twisted this one on me

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a little bit, or actually, the Holy Spirit impacted me a little bit with this.

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And he had me, as I was reading this aloud over and over in my

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office to go, Now I want you to add the

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word you. Okay? So instead, I was like,

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therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly

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loved, you clothe yourself with

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compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

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You bear with each other and forgive one another.

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If any of you has a grievance against someone, you forgive

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me. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And

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over all these virtues, you put on love,

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which binds them all together in perfect unity.

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Say it with me now. You let the peace of Christ

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rule in your heart, since as members of one body, you were called

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to peace. And you be thankful.

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Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach

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and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns,

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and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude

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in your heart. And you and me,

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whatever we do, whether in word or deed, we do it all

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in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through

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him. These are the clothes that we are

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to wear. These are the things that we are to clothe ourselves

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with. And so I was like, okay, Lord. You know, there's a

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couple of those I'm okay with, and there's a couple of them I can really

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grow. Need a new T shirt there, because that one's not

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really working. People are gonna come in and gonna say, compassion,

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you know, kindness. They're like, oh, I see what the struggle is here.

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Okay.

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In contrast, what to wear this,

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it says. Then he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of

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the Lord and Satan standing at his right side to what,

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accuse him? The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you,

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Satan. The angel said to those who were standing before him, take

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off his filthy clothes. Then he said to Joshua,

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see, I have taken away your sin, and I will put

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fine garments on you. We have the contrast here.

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We have what we've been told to put on, and then we have this

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thing that's being referred to as filthy garments. And filthy

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garments have everything to do with what it said right here. We. When it

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said the accuser. The accuser,

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we often put on garments that the

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accuser has told us to wear, Right? You're not

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worth it. They're not worth it. That one to me is even worse. When

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we stand and we're going, oh, we're gonna judge somebody else's sin when our

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rags are filthy? But to go the

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accuser, anytime you hear that voice in your spirit towards yourself

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or if you're using that voice toward anyone else, you need a spirit

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check. Because God is the judge. Amen. And we

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are not the sons of Satan. We are not the sons of an

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accuser. We are of a father who

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loves and is compassionate and kind. And he

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takes off those garments. He doesn't

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just go, I'm going to cover your filthy garments.

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He says, take them away. Get rid of them.

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Take them off. Those things, those accusations,

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those dark places, the sin that you carry.

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Because God has new garments for us. God has new

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garments for us. He has something that we are supposed to

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wear that doesn't look like that. Therefore, we

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also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let

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us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily

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ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

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What does that have to do with this? Sometimes the weights we are

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wearing, we are so acquainted with those

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weights. And not every weight is a sin. Some things

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just weigh us down, some things just weigh us down. We're carrying

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around things that we were never intended to carry. Like, for

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example, confusion. It's not a

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sin to be confused. But the Word says God is not the author

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of confusion. So we know if we're feeling that that's a

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weight, right? That's something heavy that we have chosen to take

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on judgment. The Word tells me that God is the judge and

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that God will judge us. So when we take on the role of judging

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others in that sense, that's a weight that we were not

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intended to carry. God is sovereign God is good and he is

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sovereign and he is just. There's a passage that says,

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justice and mercy have kissed. That's what

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he does. God looks and he judges with mercy

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and justice. Only he knows how to do that.

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Disappointment, frustration, comparison.

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Well, I wouldn't have done that. That's what Absalom

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said. Comparison,

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regret, fear, offense.

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And sometimes just exhaustion. Sometimes you are so

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weary, and that's just what you're carrying is that weariness,

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that weightiness, because you're dealing with these things and God's going,

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wait a minute, I have a different garment for you. See, God never

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intended his people to carry what only his shoulders were built to bear.

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You know what's so cool about this? I had been studying this in my office

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and having a kind of pretty tough day, and

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one of the elders in the house sent me a message. And he said, I

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just felt like the Lord wanted me to tell you that, that your shoulders were

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not intended to carry the weight, that it's his

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weight to carry. And I had just written that down in my notes. And

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I'm like, I love. Scripture tells us that he is a God who confirms the

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word of his servant. And I love when he steps in and he confirms

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something in our spirits. Here's what he was

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reminding me of this week. Some people have

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worn their weights for so long that they mistake it for identity.

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The weights are not who you are. They are only the garments you have

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chosen. They're the garments that you have chosen. You're like,

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I'm just an angry human. I'm just. I am just. I

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am just. I am just. And every

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time you add that weight to you, and according to the Bible that I

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read, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

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Before even one of your days came to be, they were written in his book.

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All the days ordained for you were written in his book before even one of

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them came to be. He knew you before you were knit

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together in your mother's womb. And he said, you are

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fearfully and wonderfully made. You know, sometimes I can look at my

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kids if they're going through something or they're having a struggle, and maybe

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sometimes all they see is the struggle. But as a parent, you know what you've

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put in those kids. You know that even though they struggle,

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there's a foundation in them that they can draw from. And even

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when they're struggling, you can see the other side of it and go,

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no, I know what is in there. And I believe that for

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many of us, that's what God is Doing, going. I realize

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I see you in this struggle, but I also see what's on the other side

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of this, because I know what I've put in you. And he is

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so faithful. Here's this. I thought this was so cool. A garment of

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praise that translates to a garment of praise has been bestowed

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to you. And it means by pure grace,

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God has draped his joy over your shoulders.

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By pure grace, he has draped his joy

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over your shoulders. But we get a choice in whether

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we carry that if we decide to wear that or

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not. And it changes everything when we

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do that. Worship changes the atmosphere before

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it changes the circumstances. This is what I believe. When the Lord said,

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I want for three weeks, I want you guys to worship anyway

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for three weeks. I know it's gonna be a little bit hard, you know,

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but I want you to worship anyway. And I truly believe that

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on the other side of these three weeks, if we will do what God has

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called us to do, it doesn't mean that everything's gonna change. But worship will

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shift the atmosphere. It always does. It always does. Have

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you ever gotten here to service early? Oh, wait, wait a minute.

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No. Sometimes you get here a little early because,

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you know, our service times can be a little bit different. And you walk in

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the back of the room and worship's still taking place, and it

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just feels different. It just feels different when you walk

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in, because worship shifts an atmosphere. I

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love that he does that. And we get the choice before it changes the

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circumstances. Worship changes the atmosphere. That's where I believe we are.

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I believe that the Lord is going, worship anyway. Worship anyway.

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Worship anyway. Somebody else who saw that they were in a battle,

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Jehoshaphat. There were all of these mighty armies coming against

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Jehoshaphat. He didn't have enough men. He didn't have enough

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strength to go and fight that battle. But this is what he did.

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King Jehoshaphat didn't answer. An overwhelming army with

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overwhelming strength, but with overwhelming worship.

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That's what he did. He decided. I got tickled. I

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was thinking about. He decided to send the worship team first

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and send them to sing. Don't you think the worship team was like, what?

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All of these guys have metal on, they

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have spears, and we've got a liar. I

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mean, seriously, it had to be, like, a little bit of a shakeup to go.

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You guys are going first. And then I was thinking, you know,

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there are probably many times when the worship team comes out and

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maybe feels that way. They know they've got to plow some ground

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for us. To go. But you know what happened here. As they began to sing

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and praise, the Lord set

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ambushes for the enemy, the Lord went ahead

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of them. One version says, while they sang, God fought.

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While they worshiped, God fought on their behalf.

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They began to sing and praise, and the Lord said, ambushes.

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And they were completely defeated. See,

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they didn't go in going, oh, well, if we worship, there will not be

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an army coming against us. They will not be greater

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numbers. They didn't deny what? Worship doesn't deny what is true. It

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declares a greater truth that God is sovereign over all of it.

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Regardless of what you're facing, regardless of what's coming at you,

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it isn't that you're going, oh, this is not happening. The stages of

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denial and the stages of grief. You're not going, this isn't happening.

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You're going, God is greater than this. God is better than

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this. He is sovereign over all of this. I love

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this. Tozier says, praise is the rehearsal of our eternal song.

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And when we worship, we come into agreement with the heavens.

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When we worship. Sometimes, you know, especially sometimes in first

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gathering, you know, the numbers will be low or whatever, and you're like. And there

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aren't a lot of people singing here. Oh, but there is a

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host. There is a host that we have

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joined when we sing Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord

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God Almighty. Don't you know, we are just the sweet, smallest echo

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of worship that's going to continue to take place. And we

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just come into agreement with it. See, here's the thing. Breakthrough begins the moment

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our worship enthrones God above every circumstance. It

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begins the moment that worship enters the room. It begins

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the moment that you make a decision to worship anyway and

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begin to worship the Lord. When you decide to

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go vertical, when you decide to take

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your worship to the feet of Christ. When you decided.

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See, here's the thing that I do, guys, and

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it's just me when I'm struggling and I don't know quite how

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to get there with the Lord, you know, when I don't know quite how to

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push things, I will close my eyes, I will enter into that

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place of worship. And in my worship, in my mind, I

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go right to his feet. I go right to his

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feet. And the words that are coming out of my mouth,

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I'm singing to him. And I can see it in my

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spirit. I can see it in my spirit. That's why it's so

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important, the songs that we sing from the platform. If I can't

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sing it to him, then I'm not gonna sing it to you. But

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to go there in your spirit and trust him and to just

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worship him. And I can tell you something, something shifts

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in you when you do that, that the heaviness

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begins to leave. All of the things that you carry into that

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space, you have the opportunity to leave. And at his feet.

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In this season and in all of our seasons, we need to remember that our

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worship preaches before our words ever do our

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worship preaches. There's a message in our worship

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before we ever open our mouth. And here's the thing that the Lord

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keeps driving home to me right now. Never

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underestimate your worship in hard places. Someone else is learning how

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to worship there by watching you.

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Someone else is learning how to worship in the hard places

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by knowing that you, our family, are going through hard

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places and how you're dealing with this, how you're dealing

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with the hard places. And this could have nothing to do with anything going

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on here. I know some of you guys are going through some hard times,

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going through some difficult seasons. And here's what the Lord reminded me.

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Wear worship loudly enough that your family learns where peace comes from.

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Wear it loudly enough. When you don't feel like worshiping, turn it

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on anyway. When you don't feel like dancing, do it anyway

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because he's worthy and he's good. It's not denying your situation.

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And here's the thing that just like I said, these are things,

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places. He's been ministering to me, and he took me here.

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Jesus exchanged garments so we could wear praise.

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Jesus exchanged his garments. Let's see what that looked like.

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When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his

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clothes, dividing them into four shares, one

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for each of them. With the undergarment remaining, this garment was

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seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. Boy, that'll

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preach right there. Does that sound like a veil?

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Let's not tear it, they said to one another. Let's decide by lot who will

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get it. This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled. That said, they

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divided my cloth among them and cast lots for my

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garments. So this is what the soldiers did.

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And here's the paraphrase. They stripped Jesus of his garments,

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and he took on ours. He took on our

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grief. He wore our sorrows.

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He wore our punishment. He took our shame.

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All of those filthy garments that brought

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him to that place. Jesus chose.

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He chose to exchange that for all

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of this that we carry and wear. Jesus chose to

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exchange his majesty.

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His majesty for our filthy

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garments. That's what he did.

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The royal robes that he wore when with his

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father, all that he possessed, all that he was. He

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made the choice to exchange

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that majesty for our mess. He

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chose that. And now, because he chose that, we get to

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choose a garment of praise instead of a spirit of

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heaviness, because he has provided it. But the

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instruction is, remove the filthy garments. Which

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ones? The shame, the judgment, the anger,

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the frustration, the confusion. All of the things that

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the enemy would love, the accuser would love to robe us in

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now and in all seasons. We choose to take those

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off because we have been given a garment of praise. And I

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can give you a shirt, I can give you a dress, and you will

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have it, and you can lay it across your lap. Or. Or you can choose

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to put it on. God has given this to us, and we have a choice

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whether or not we put it on. He tells us this. Rather,

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clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about

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how to gratify the desires of the flesh. What? Clothe

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yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. So I tell you this and

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insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the

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Gentiles do. This is what the clothes look like, guys, in the futility

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of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life

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of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening

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of their hearts. Boy, can our hearts go there fast.

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And when your hearts get hard, you shut him out and

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you're like, I don't hear the Lord. Well, sometimes our hearts get so hard

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that we shut down the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Having lost all

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sensitivity, they have given themselves over to the sensuality so

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as to indulge in every kind of impurity. And they are full of greed.

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That, however, is not the way of life. You

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learned when you heard about Christ and were

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taught in him accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You

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were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off.

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Put off your old self. Take it off, throw it away, get rid

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of it, don't hang out with it. Don't put it back in your closet, which

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is being corrupted by deceitful desires to be made new in the

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attitudes of your minds and to put on the new self

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created to be like God in righteousness and holiness.

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It's a choice. We get to choose because everything has

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been provided for us. Everything has been provided. Christ took our

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grave clothes and exchanged them for robes of righteousness. And

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how weird would it be for you to wear both?

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Seriously, grave clothes belong in Graves.

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That's not you. That's not now.

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That's not ever Death. Hell and the grave were defeated

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by what Jesus did. God

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demonstrates his own love for us while we were still sinners. Christ died

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for us. Can worship Team come out.

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You cannot wear both grave clothes and robes of righteousness. They don't fit.

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They don't fit. It makes you double minded. You either. You know, it's like

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you gotta set your face like flint toward him. This pilgrimage that we are

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on in him, our eyes are supposed to be on him, right?

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Not everything else that's going on. We can't start to focus

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on the fact that we have no more garlic. You know, the things that they

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mourned over and grieved over in Egypt and they had to keep their eyes on

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him. They were getting ready to go through some water. They needed to be pay

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attention to where the Holy Spirit was leading and what he was doing.

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When facing a battle, a storm, an enemy,

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a barren or hard place, what garments

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do you choose?

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I got up one morning and I was just like,

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lord, I don't want to. I just, I don't want to. That's usually

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a clue right there, right? I don't wanna.

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I don't wanna. I don't feel like. I don't

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think I will. I. Most sentences that start with

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I can create issues, but anyway. And all of

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this was rumbling through my head and rumbling through my spirit. Rumbling

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through. And I felt like the Holy Spirit goes,

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choose, choose.

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And I knew what he meant. I get to choose how

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I walk this day. See, on one side of this

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closet hangs the filthy garments. Anger, bitterness, frustration, fear,

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anxiety, judgment, gossip,

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shame, blame, comparison and

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discouragement. And this is a closet that we can all draw from if

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we choose to draw from it. Or

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on the other side, garments of praise,

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gratitude, worship, honor, faith,

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joy, thanksgiving, hope, love, and a peace

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that passes all understanding.

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And here's the thing, guys. The garment you choose determines the atmosphere that

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you carry into a room, into a

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space. You wear and carry the fragrance.

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Your choice. You wear and carry the fragrance of your

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choice. I have to read this to you because I have read this so

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many times. It's in Second Corinthians,

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but for some reason, man, this time.

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Corinthians. I love

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that sound. Babel Bible page

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is turning, but listen to this. Second Corinthians 2, starting at

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verse 14. But thanks be to God

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who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ. And

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through us, through us spreads everywhere

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the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. Now this is the part that I want

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you to pay attention to. For we are.

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For we are. Are

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to God. We are

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to God the aroma of Christ

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among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

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See, I've always known

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and enjoyed that we are the fragrance of Christ.

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But we are the fragrance of Christ. To

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God. To God. Have you ever

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just put your nose against your kid's head?

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After bath time is important. And

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you just put your nose right there and you smell that child,

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and it's like, that's my baby. That's my baby.

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And you could pick him out of anything. Or you put on your husband's T

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shirt or his jacket and you can smell the cologne that

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he wears. And there's this intimacy, there's this connection that

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comes through fragrance. Or on the opposite side of it,

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you get anywhere near a school bus and you step on there and you're like,

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all of a sudden have flashbacks to when you were kids. But anyway, because

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the fragrance takes you there.

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And when I read that, this tells me that we

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are to God the fragrance

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of his son. The fragrance of his

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son. So that when healing's over and we are

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walking among the ones that are headed toward death or headed

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toward life, he sees we are the fragrance

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of Christ. And when it says, put on Christ,

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it's all of the above. It's all of the

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above. We are the fragrance of

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Christ.

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Choose. Choose the garment

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of praise. Scripture says, choose you this day. Who you

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will serve as for me and my house. We will

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serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. And you get to choose.

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And he's given us everything. And

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my hope would be that we all decide to allow him

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to drape that garment of joy

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by grace alone over our shoulders

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in this season and in all seasons to come. Can we just

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do that? Can we do that together? As the body of Christ,

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as one unit? As the fragrance of

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Christ. To the Lord. To our Lord

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God. We are going to this week and

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next week as well. Those are the three weeks I told you about.

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We are going to end with praise.

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However, I do realize that there are some who probably need prayer

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tonight or today. What month is this?

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And so I will ask the elders and the prayer warriors, after

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we have praised our way through, if you all would gather

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over here so that anyone who needs prayer can come for prayer. But for the

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rest of you, can you come praise with me? Can you

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come with me for just about 4 minutes and 8 seconds? Isn't

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that about what the song is? You got 4 minutes and 8 seconds. In.

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You.

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Come on down here with me. And we are going to. Here's the

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thing. We are teaching somebody how to worship their way

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through, just like the kids taught us. We are going to

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worship our way through. And my prayer would be that it is a

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declaration of joy taking on that garment of praise. And

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if you've got any spirits of heaviness or filthy garments

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that you've been carrying around, now would be a perfect time to throw

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them off, because we are going to worship him.

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Let's go ahead, guys.